What Does Exodus 10:12 Mean?
And the LORD said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, so that they may come up upon the land of Egypt and eat all the grass of the land, all that the hail has left.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.THE KEY
The locusts do not enter an untouched land: they rise over what the hail has left.
THE MEANING
You see the locusts rise over Egypt and consume the growth left after the hail. The land’s remainder is not outside the next devastation; it becomes its target.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the assumption that what survives one devastation is therefore safe; here, the remainder becomes the next target.
THE ROOT
הִשְׁאִיר
hish'ir
GROWS FROM
שאר
sha'ar
remain, be left over
The Hebrew for what the hail “left” comes from שאר, meaning “remain” or “be left over.” The root makes the surviving remainder visible, and this verse shows that what remains is still vulnerable to what comes next.
ALSO GROWS
she'erit: remnant
שְׁאֵרִית
The same root names what remains after loss, echoing the vegetation left after the hail.
nish'ar: remained, was left
נִשְׁאַר
This form makes the state of remaining explicit: the plants are left behind, but not protected from the locusts.
אַרְבֶּה
arbeh
GROWS FROM
רבה
ravah
be many, increase
“locusts” in this verse is arbeh. The locust’s name is linked to רבה, “be many” or “increase,” carrying the force of multiplication in its name. Here that growing multitude consumes the remainder left by the hail.
ALSO GROWS
ravah: become many, increase
רָבָה
The root’s sense of increasing illuminates the locust swarm’s force as it rises over the land.
hirbah: make many, multiply
הִרְבָּה
This causative form evokes multiplication, the quality associated with the locusts’ name.
מֹשֶׁה
Mosheh
GROWS FROM
משה
mashah
draw out, pull from water
Moses’ name is tied to משה, “draw out,” and is explained by the naming words in Exodus 2:10. Here the one drawn out extends his hand as the locusts are released over Egypt.
ALSO GROWS
mashah: draw out
מָשָׁה
This is the verb associated with Moses’ name and its meaning.
meshithihu: I drew him out
מְשִׁיתִהוּ
These are the words used to explain Moses’ name in Exodus 2:10.
THE PATTERN
What remains after an event becomes the material for what follows.
For they covered the eye of the whole land, so that it went dark. They ate all the grass of the land and all the fruit of the trees that the hail had left, and no green remained in the trees, or in the grass of the field, through all the land of Egypt.What the shearer has left, the locust has eaten; and what the locust has left, the lapper has eaten; and what the lapper has left, the gnawer has eaten.When they were filled, he said to his disciples, Gather up the broken pieces that remain, so that nothing perishes.THE THREAD
And it will come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and the escape of the house of Jacob, will no longer keep leaning their full weight upon the one who struck them, but they will lean their full weight upon the LORD, the Set-Apart One of Israel, in truth.The word translated “left” in Exodus comes from שאר, the same root that gives Isaiah “remnant.” Exodus shows the remainder exposed to another force; Isaiah uses that word-family for those who remain after devastation.
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